Kellner, Foe of TiVo, Steps Down at Turner Broadcasting
The New York Times is reporting that Jamie Kellner is stepping down as Chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting, a unit of AOL Time Warner. Although Kellner is credited with a leading role in the founding of the Fox and WB television networks, he has been under increasing pressure in his current role, due to the continued underperformance of Turner properties like CNN.
Kellner had been mentioned on CTDATA back in May, when we reported that he told Cableworld Magazine that typical uses of a device like TiVo amount to theft of service because viewers use them to skip advertisements.
Anyone who feels that they have the right to dictate how people watch television programs delivered to their homes in such a comprehensive manner is ill-suited to a career as a broadcast executive in the United States. Perhaps he would do better in a country that does not have the traditions of individual liberty and intellectual property rights that exist here.